Nicolai Juul Foss (born 1964) is a
Danish organizational theorist
An organization or organisation ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution (formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a par ...
, and scholar of entrepreneurship and strategy. He is currently a professor at the
Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen Business School (Danish'': Handelshøjskolen i København'') often abbreviated and referred to as CBS (also in Danish), is a public university situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is considered one of the most prestigious business scho ...
where he has spent most of his career. Foss' main contribution to organization theory is through the
micro-foundational perspective in organization theory and management—examining how individual behaviors aggregate to affect the behavior of larger groups and organizations. He was created a Knight of the
Order of the Dannebrog
The Order of the Dannebrog () is a Denmark, Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V of Denmark, Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the Order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single cla ...
in 2015.
Biography
Nicolai Juul Foss is Professor of Strategy at the Department of Strategy and Innovation at the
Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen Business School (Danish'': Handelshøjskolen i København'') often abbreviated and referred to as CBS (also in Danish), is a public university situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is considered one of the most prestigious business scho ...
(CBS), an Honorary Adjunct Professor, Department of Marketing and Management,
University of Southern Denmark
The University of Southern Denmark (, SDU) has campuses located in Southern Denmark and on Zealand. It offers a number of joint programmes in co-operation with the University of Flensburg and the University of Kiel. Contacts with regional indu ...
, and External Chair, Danish Institute for Advanced Studies, 2020–2025.
Foss held the Rodolfo de Benedetti Chair of Entrepreneurship at the
Bocconi University
Bocconi University or Università Bocconi (formally known in Italian language, Italian as ''Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi'' – Luigi Bocconi Commercial University) is a private university in Milan, Italy. The university is consistently ...
, but assumed a professorship at the CBS starting 2020. He has held part-time and visiting professorships at the
Warwick Business School
Warwick Business School (WBS) is the business school of the University of Warwick and an academic department within the Faculty of Social Sciences. It was established in 1967 as the School of Industrial and Business Studies. The business school ...
,
Norwegian School of Economics
The Norwegian School of Economics () or NHH is a business school situated in Bergen, Norway. It was founded in 1936 as Norway's first business school and is the leading teaching and research institution in Norway for the fields of management and ...
,
Lund University
Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...
,
Luiss Guido Carli-Roma,
ESC Rennes, and
Agder University. Foss was assistant, associate, and full professor of strategy at CBS from 1993 to 2016 and served as department head at CBS for 10 years. He has served on the board of directors of the
Strategic Management Society
The Strategic Management Society (SMS) is a professional society for the advancement of strategic management. The society consists of nearly 3,000 members representing various backgrounds and perspectives from more than eighty different countries ...
, of which he is also a Fellow, is one of the very few Danish social science members of
Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences.
The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...
, and was a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for 2018 and 2019.
Foss has written on many different subjects, including the
theory of the firm
The theory of the firm consists of a number of economic theories that explain and predict the nature of the firm, company, or corporation, including its existence, behaviour, structure, and relationship to the market. Firms are key drivers in eco ...
in management research, methodological issues in management research (particularly the role of
microfoundations
Microfoundations are an effort to understand macroeconomic phenomena in terms of individual agents' economic behavior and interactions.Maarten Janssen (2008),Microfoundations, in ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics'', 2nd ed. Research in mi ...
), organizational antecedents of entrepreneurship, the history and content of entrepreneurship research, the
Austrian School of Economics
The Austrian school is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivations and actions of individuals along with their ...
, human resource management and other subjects.
Encompassing 216 journal articles, 102 book chapters and 26 books (edited as well as monographs), his work has been published in the ''
Academy of Management Review
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the ...
'', ''
Academy of Management Journal
The ''Academy of Management Journal'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of management. It is published by the Academy of Management and was established in 1958 as the ''Journal of the Academy of Management'', obtain ...
'',
''Organization Science'', ''
Strategic Management Journal
The Strategic Management Society (SMS) is a professional society for the advancement of strategic management. The society consists of nearly 3,000 members representing various backgrounds and perspectives from more than eighty different countries ...
'', and several other leading journals. He has published books with leading publishers, such as
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
and
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
Foss writes a monthly column in the Danish newspaper
Berlingske
''Berlingske'', previously known as ''Berlingske Tidende'' (, 'Berling's Times'), is a Danish national daily newspaper based in Copenhagen. It is considered a newspaper of record for Denmark. First published on 3 January 1749, ''Berlingske'' is ...
under the column titled "Forstå Business" ("Understand Business").
Education
Foss obtained his PhD in 1993 from the
Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen Business School (Danish'': Handelshøjskolen i København'') often abbreviated and referred to as CBS (also in Danish), is a public university situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is considered one of the most prestigious business scho ...
.
Selected publications
* Nicholas S. Argyres, Alfredo De Massis, Nicolai Foss, Federico Frattini, Geoffrey Jones, and Brian S. Silverman. 2020. “History-informed Strategy Research: The promise of History and Historical Research Methods in Advancing Strategy Scholarship." ''Strategic Management Journal'', 41: 343–368.
* Nicolai Foss and Torben Pedersen. 2019. “Microfoundations in International Management Research: The Case of Knowledge Sharing in Multinational Corporations.” ''Journal of International Business Studies'', 50: 1594–1623.
* Jay B Barney, Nicolai Foss, and Jacob Lyngsie. 2018. “The Role of Senior Management in Opportunity Formation: Direct Involvement or Reactive Selection?” ''Strategic Management Journal'', 39(5): 1325–49.
* Jacob Lyngsie and Nicolai Foss. 2017. “The More, the Merrier? The Role of Gender in Explaining Entrepreneurial Outcomes in Established Firms.” ''Strategic Management Journal'', 38: 487–505.
*Nicolai Foss, Francesco Rullani and Lars Frederiksen. 2016. “Problem-solving Behaviors in Community Forms.” ''Strategic Management Journal'', 37: 1189–1210.
* Nicolai Foss and Libby Weber. 2016 “Putting Opportunism in the Back Seat: Bounded Rationality, Costly Conflict and Hierarchical Forms.” ''Academy of Management Review'', 41: 41–79.
* Teppo Felin, Nicolai Foss and Rob Ployhart. 2015. “Microfoundations for Management Research.” ''Academy of Management Annals'' 9: 575–632.
* Nicolai Foss and Niklas Hallberg. 2014. “How Symmetrical Assumptions Facilitate Theoretical Advance in Strategic Management: the Case of the Resource-based View.” ''Strategic Management Journal'', 35: 903–913.
* Nicolai Foss, Jacob Lyngsie and Shaker Zahra. 2013. “The Role of External Knowledge Sources and Organizational Design in the Process of Opportunity Exploitation.” ''Strategic Management Journal'', 34: 1453–1471.
* Nicholas Argyres, Teppo Felin, Nicolai Foss, and Todd Zenger. 2012. “The Organizational Economics of Organizational Capability: a Research Agenda”. ''Organization Science'' 23: 1213–1226.
* Mia Reinholt, Torben Pedersen, and Nicolai Foss. 2011. “Why a Central Network Position Isn't Enough: the Moderating Roles of Motivation and Ability for Knowledge Sharing in Employee Networks.” ''Academy of Management Journal,'' 54: 1277–1297.
* Siegwart Lindenberg and Nicolai Foss. 2011. „Managing Motivation for Joint Production: The Role of Goal Framing and Governance Mechanisms.” ''Academy of Management Review'' 36: 500–525.
* Nicolai Foss, Keld Laursen and Torben Pedersen) “Linking Customer Interaction and Innovation: The Mediating Role of New Organizational Practices,” ''Organization Science'', 22: 980–999. (2011).
References
External links
Homepage on the website of Copenhagen Business School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foss, Nicolai J.
1964 births
Living people
Danish business theorists
Academic staff of Copenhagen Business School
Management scientists
Business theorists